Pinwheel Bouquet Tutorial & Curb Appeal Challenge

Hi Friends, It’s week 2 of the curb appeal mini challenge and I have a fun tutorial of a pinwheel summer door hanger to share with you!

It’s been fun to see everyone’s homes from the outside and to see that we all have challenge areas.

If you read my post from last week, you probably remember that I have a newly built home. Because the house is new, it does have some aesthetic appeal to start with but the lazy owners (me) have been neglecting the landscaping and front porch.

Changing out Shrubs to Add Curb Appeal

I started the week by moving around some poorly placed bushes, replacing dead bushes and cleaning out the weeds. I won’t go too much into that because it was every bit as much fun as it sounds.
After the shrub shuffle and bonus farmers tan, I moved on to painting my bench and front door.

Painting the Front Door

From the photos, you may think my front door is just fine and doesn’t need a change. You would be right. But I was tired of it and wanted something new so it was time for a color change. Plus, the sun has started to fade the red and it is becoming very orangey. That is what I told my husband anyway. I am pretty sure he was on to my bogus door excuse but chose to ignore the nonsense for fear it would just lead to more conversations about possible colors, shades, hues and undertones. Not that he hasn’t learned to sleep with his eyes open when I break out the color deck but I am pretty sure he would rather avoid the conversation all together if he can. Poor guy, that doesn’t happen very often.

Painting the door was easy. But I struggled to get the shade I was looking for. The sun hitting the door made most of my samples look too bright. I played around with several shades and lived with a very colorful door for a couple of days. After buying 2 different outdoor paint colors and painted the door 4 times and I decide to combine them and make my own color. I like it now. What do you think?

Pinwheel Bouquet Door Decoration

I also worked on something summery and welcoming for the front door. While I was at the store I saw these pinwheels and thought a bouquet of them would make an inviting front door.
The pinwheels were a few dollars each. Since buying a bouquet’s worth would get pricy, I figured I would just make them.

(Please see my note below for changes I would make if I were to make these again.)

Pinwheel Supplies

I used spray adhesive to adhere the fabric to the cardstock and then cut out my shapes (see note below for changes I would make)

I then drilled a tiny hole into the dowel rods.
To make the pinwheel, you pull every other tip of the star into the center and secured it with the long pin. I then put the pin through the hole in the dowel rod and bent the back of the pin to secure. Since these were for decoration, I added some glue to the back for extra security.

Paintyourselfasmile.com

To build the door hanger, I started with an old metal basket I got from a thrift shop.

I sprayed the metal basket navy blue and added some floral foam inside.

I then start with adding white hydrangeas. I am adding the white flowers a filler backdrop for my pinwheels.

Once my basket is full of the white flowers, all that is left to do is place my pinwheels.

What do you think? Cute?

I am sure I will fuss with it over the next few days because I can’t leave anything alone but for now I kind of like it.

Note: After I made this yesterday, I got to thinking that if I were to do it again I would use all fabric for the pinwheels. I would fuse the two layers of fabric with Heavy-Duty Wonder-Under. This would bond the layers and make it stiff enough to hold its shape. In the end I think this may help the pinwheels to last a few seasons. If you are worried about fading, you can pick up a uv ray block spray for fabric and that should help. 🙂

So coming up this week I need to tackle the house numbers, sew pillows for my bench, make a welcome sign and work on planters. Oh goodness that is starting to sound like a lot of work. Well, we will see how far I get.

Curb Appeal Project List

Replace dead bushes, Clean up landscaping & Add flowers

Clean up Porch

Paint Porch Bench White

Add DIY planters, Pillows and Fun décor

Create some sort of Welcome Sign for the Porch

Add Decorative House Numbers

Add Landscape Lighting

Paint the Front Door

Create a Wreath or Door decoration

Fix the faded Garage Side Lights

In case you missed a week , here are the links to all the weeks of the challenge…

Jenny, I absolutely love the color of your front door. Your pin~wheel project is so cute. I confess I would have just bought the pin~wheels. Thanks for sharing this cute project at Your Inspired Design Link Party.

Hey there friend…how did I miss this? I love the pinwheel bouquet…think I’ll need to whip one up for the upcoming holiday. And I will follow your suggestion to do it with all fabric. Thanks for that tip.
You are right, there was nothing wrong with your door color, but that pale blue/green is really a lovely shade. I can’t see what you have up your sleeve next!
Wishing you a lovely weekend.
Hugs, LYnn

Lovely and checked off the list – winner! Such a great idea and so easy to personalize the pinwheels for season/holiday/fav colors. If you have time, we would love if you linked up to our Celebrate in the US party! http://2crochethooks.com/celebrate-in-the-usa-party/

I love how you just made your own pinwheels, isn’t it great being a DIY blogger? Then you’re in charge of the patterns, paper, etc. I really love the hydrangeas as a background to them, so pretty! Also, I just LOVE that door color… I do love red doors, but this color really works with the house better and brightens it up!

Aww thank you so much Carrie. I really appreciate you saying that because I struggled with changing the red door. I am a red door fan . I like how you lightened your door too! With our porches, having that door lightened really helps it to stand out.
Have a great week Carrie
-Jenny

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Welcome friends!

I’m Jenny and this is my corner of the world to share my love of all things creative and slightly silly. I’m a wife, mother of boys, artist and homemaker extraordinaire. Okay so I may have exaggerated on my homemaking skills but I’m pretty good at those other things! This blog is my hit and miss adventures and the crafty crap I make. I hope you will follow along, laugh with me and possibly find some inspiration of your own.